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Kalman: What Bruins Do Against East Will Tell Us More About Them Than Blowout Loss To Kings

BOSTON (CBS) - When the Bruins traded Milan Lucic to the Los Angeles Kings last June, everyone had a feeling the Bruins and Kings would be on different levels this season.

The Kings' 9-2 win in Lucic's return to TD Garden on Tuesday proved how far apart the organizations are in terms of present-day contender status.

Are the Bruins really seven goals worse than the Kings? No. A bounce here or there and the Bruins could've lost 5-3 or 6-3 and that would've better reflected the difference between the Kings, a veteran-laden Stanley Cup contender, and the Bruins, a team trying to contend for a playoff spot while building toward the future.

Bruins center Patrice Bergeron called the matchup with the Kings a measuring stick. He might've wanted to re-think that after the spanking, but at least the Bruins learned several lessons at the hands of Lucic (one goal, one assist) and the Kings (nine goal scorers).

"A lot of work to be done," Bergeron said in response to what the measuring-stick loss told him about his team. "It's one of those things where we have 29 games left, and we knew we had some work to do, but we have, I guess, a lot of work to do. So hopefully we have plenty of character in here to kind of realize that we've got to be much better, and work on things we saw today, and I think we all know in here what those things are. It happened a lot of times this year, where we really lacked focus, but tonight was that one, I guess it topped it all."

The loss to the Kings, just like the losses to St. Louis, San Jose and Anaheim before it, tells you one thing: the Bruins would not want to be moved to the Western Conference. Luckily there's no chance of that happening and the Eastern Conference, the little brother of the two conferences, is still manageable for a team that even without Lucic, Dougie Hamilton and Reilly Smith still has enough talent to earn a playoff spot.

Lucic, an astute follower of the NHL, has been impressed with how the Bruins have gotten by without him.

"You know I think they've done a lot better than what people have expected. I think a lot of people kind of wrote them heading into this season and you can see they still have been plugging away all season long," he said after his victory lap around the Garden ice. "They're still in the playoff fight, [29] big games. ... So I guess you don't wish anything bad upon anyone, so it's kind of good to see them having success, and individual success."

Lucic can afford to not wish the worst for the Bruins. The Kings only face the Bruins once more this season. There won't be a rematch in the Stanley Cup finals. So far Lucic was the big winner of the trade. Until we see how Colin Miller, Jakub Zboril (selected 13th with the Kings' pick in last year's draft) and this year's first-round pick from San Jose (acquired for goaltender Martin Jones) develop, or how the Bruins spend their freed-up cap space, Lucic will continue to be the victor.

The Bruins can close that gap a little bit by making the playoffs this spring and at least getting their younger players some postseason experience. That's going to be accomplished not by conquering the likes of Los Angeles, Anaheim and Chicago. None of the teams in the East not named Washington are going to fare well over the long haul against the iron of the West. The Bruins are going to have to improve their play against their equals and the dregs of the East.

For 13 minutes and 18 seconds of the first period against the Kings, the Bruins led 1-0. A couple breakdowns in the final 1:39 sent Boston to the first intermission behind 2-1. But if the Bruins played against their Eastern rivals the way they did in the first period against the Kings, they're probably taking a multi-goal lead into the break.

Coach Claude Julien is right when he says not to make a "big deal" about this loss. It'll be a big deal if the Bruins revert to their lackluster play of the past couple weeks, when they struggled to beat Buffalo (needing an overtime penalty shot in one game) and Columbus (in a shootout) and lost to Toronto in overtime. Those lost points and missed regulation or overtime wins are going to be the difference come mid-April, not blowouts against the West.

"You know this was tough, but I still believe we have a playoff team," center David Krejci said. "Obviously we can't really measure ourselves against LA tonight or the other night against Anaheim, you know. So we have a long road in front of us but I still believe we have a good playoff team and we can prove lots of people wrong. But we have to wake up here. As individuals we have to look ourselves in the mirror. And you know there's a big road trip coming up. So we have six games and we're playing some good playoff teams so we have to show that we can play against good playoff teams."

The Bruins can't let losses to anyone, let alone the Kings, throw them off their plan. They need to get experience for their younger players and maximize their assets. By the time the Feb. 29 trade deadlines passes, Loui Eriksson should be turned into a valuable package of parts and general manager Don Sweeney should see what he can get for Brett Connolly or Jimmy Hayes too. Amazingly, the East and the Atlantic Division are so week the Bruins could probably still hang in the playoff race on the strength of Brad Marchand's hot hand, Tuukka Rask's goaltending and Julien deciding to get the team to pack it in defensively in the neutral and defensive zones.

With the right moves by Sweeney, it might not be long until the Bruins can again compete with teams like the Kings. For now the Bruins just have to measure up against the teams in their way in the East. And as for Lucic getting the chance to contend for a title with the Kings, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.

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